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When Exposed to Sunlight, These Clothes Clean Themselves

by Will Safer on February 12, 2008 at 04:22 PM

Could this mean the end of laundry day? Textile scientists in Australia and Hong Kong have developed a special coating for fabrics made of titanium dioxide nanoparticles that actually cause the fabric to self-clean when exposed to sunlight.

Besides the obvious benefit of less time spent doing laundry, the new fabric could also mean less water used to wash clothes and less detergent being washed down drains -- both of which are good for the environment.

Wine stains diminished during the course of a day.When hit by direct sunlight, the nanoparticles -- specifically Keratins, a class of biologically fibrous proteins -- begin to interact with oxygen in the air, breaking down stains and dirt. According to a report on the scientists' findings in the science journal Chemistry of Materials, red-wine stains on pieces of wool started to fade within a few minutes of exposure to light and had all but vanished within a day (see the time-elapsed test here).

Supposedly, the nanoparticle coating does not affect the feel of treated clothing, but it may make the clothing less durable over time. It could take about five years to refine the technology to make it ready for wide distribution and use.

Note: This does not mean you can stop bathing -- an important caveat, especially for the Switched.com interns.

From The Daily Mail.


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Tags: breaking+news, chemistry, clothes, clothing, Future Tech, FutureTech, green tech, GreenTech, nano, nanoparticles, science, scientist, textiles, top, washing, Weird, Weird Science, WeirdScience

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